Miranda;

Since you have text variables, just combine them and trim off leading and trailing blanks. Of course, if you have values in both fields, then you have another problem.

RcvDate = trim(left( RcvDate || DmcRcvDate ) ) ; Drop RcvDate ;

Ed

Edward Heaton, Senior Systems Analyst, Westat (An Employee-Owned Research Corporation), 1550 Research Boulevard, Room 2018, Rockville, MD 20850-3195 Voice: (301) 610-4818 Fax: (301) 294-3992 mailto:EdHeaton@westat.com http://www.westat.com

-----Original Message----- From: miranda [mailto:mixiao@UCLA.EDU] Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2002 12:43 PM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: a simple question

Hi All, I would like combine these 2 variables and only leave variabe rcvdate. How could I do that?

My data step shows as below: data test; input rcvdate $10. DmcRcvdate $20.; cards; 04/03/2002 04/08/2002 05/02/2002

08/03/2002 08/23/2002 08/28/2002 ; run;

The final data set should look like :

rcvdate 04/03/2002 04/08/2002 05/02/2002

08/03/2002 08/23/2002 08/28/2002

Thanks.